Das unsichtbare Mädchen (2012)

Berlin detective Niklas Tanner is transferred, at his own request, to the homicide squad in Sihl, Upper Franconia, near the Czech border. At a company party in nearby Eisenstein, he ends up with his superior, Chief Detective Wilhelm Michel, at the Bärenstüberl pub, which is divided in two by a red line. There he sees a picture of a girl on the wall with the words “Sina, you will always be with us!” as well as the message “Ecco, we won’t forget you!” He also meets retired Chief Detective Joseph Altendorf. After his first day on the job, Tanner is on his way back to Berlin when he runs over a dead woman lying in the road. She is Eva Lorant, who testified nine years earlier as a witness in the case of Sina Kolb: the eight-year-old girl had suddenly disappeared in 2001 from the quiet town of Eisenstein, near Sihl. There is no body in the case, which was originally handled by Joseph Altendorf as head of the special commission. When Tanner’s current superior, Chief Detective Michel, took over the case on the instructions of the district administrator at the time (now the interior minister), a perpetrator was quickly presented; Emanuel Stock, known as Ecco, who has an intellectual disability, broke down after three days of interrogation by Michel and confessed to the murder. Although he later recanted, and the location where he said the body could be found proved to be false, Ecco was convicted. To this day, the dividing line in the Bärenstüberl shows who believes Ecco is innocent and who does not. Ecco is the pub owner’s son. Tanner finds a collection of newspaper clippings about the Sina Kolb case in Eva Lorant’s apartment and starts reopening the investigation. It soon becomes clear that he has stirred up a hornet’s nest. Michel does everything he can to stop him from investigating. Altendorf, on the other hand, takes Tanner down to his cellar, where he has collected dozens of files on the Sina case. Michel has Eva Lorant’s husband, a heavy drinker prone to violent outbursts, arrested. He tries to convince him that he murdered his wife and, through leading questions, obtains a statement that could indirectly be treated as a confession. Soon afterward, Lorant is found hanged in his cell, and the case seems to be solved. Michel is relieved, as is Interior Minister Dr. Max Helwig, who wants to succeed Minister-President Bergmann. Tanner, however, keeps investigating. One day, he catches a Czech man in his hotel room and follows his car, which leads him to the Luzi Club, a brothel just over the Czech border. Shortly afterward, Sina’s mother, Inge-Maria Kolb, tells him that Eva Lorant had visited her a few days before her death and said she had seen Sina in a supermarket near the Czech border—in Ronfeld, where the Luzi Club is also located. She had told Michel this over the phone as well. Inge-Maria also tells Tanner that Michel is Sina’s father. Tanner goes to the Luzi Club and pretends to be a customer. He is taken to a room with young girls. He recognizes Sina among them as a young woman serving drinks. He tries to abduct her, killing one of the nightclub employees in self-defense in the process, and is eventually beaten by Luzi Club employees in his car. They leave him in a field, where he is rescued by Evelin Fink, his police colleague. She had once been on Michel’s side but now works for Altendorf. After Tanner gives his account and says that he killed a man, the Luzi Club is raided. But neither the man’s body nor Sina can be found. Michel dismisses Tanner’s statement as made up, but a short time later a woman’s body is found in a quarry and identified as Sina Kolb. The funeral is held, and Ecco, who was convicted years earlier of murdering Sina, is released from forensic psychiatric care. The Sina Kolb case becomes a stumbling block for the interior minister’s career plans; his ties to the Luzi Club during his time as district administrator are proven. Helwig resigns from his offices. Michel, by contrast, appears untouchable; he publicly welcomes the released Ecco. Altendorf shoots Michel, and Tanner helps him cover up the murder. Some time later, Altendorf is living by the sea, where Tanner visits him. It could not be established who abducted Sina years earlier and killed her now. The search for Michel’s murderer continues as well.